Still Pregnant After All These Years

Well, I am 38 weeks and 2 days... which means my due date is 1 week and 5 days away.
I have found myself singing "Still Crazy" by Paul Simon but I have changed the lyrics to "Still Pregnant"... Last Friday I realized that I would never not be pregnant. This is the new me... I will be this way forever. My friend and nurse/midwife, informed me this is the final stage of emotions before birth... so, that means I am done, right?
I had some teaser contractions this past weekend that felt like mesntral cramps. I have been taking evening primrose oil, lots of walks and drinking tea with red raspberry leaf in it. Anything I can do to get this show on the road! My friend gave me some Black Cohosh that the midwife recommends I start next week... it is supposed to make me have small contractions so I am going to ask more questions about it before I take it.
Ben and I bought a Pinot Gris and a Pinot Grigio to celebrate after the birth with. We are definitely ready!
Ben has been so awesome throughout all of this. So patient and understanding. He has taken on so much of the housework, too. I know he is as ready as I am to move on from pregnancy!
Anyhow, as you can see, I am big...

36 Weeks: Barrel Cactus and Hormones in Bloom

Look how pretty the barrel cactus in our front yard is!

So, we started our birthing class, "Centering," in April. Since it has started there has been a clear separation among the participants: criers and non-criers. My insensitivity to the criers has had no boundaries in my head. There is one woman that has cried so much that the only time I have ever heard her speak is the first session... her husband has to talk for her every time because she is always crying. Of course, I am insensitive and not understanding. Well, my foot is officially in my mouth...

Sunday I had really low energy, felt sick with indigestion because my stomach is being sat on, and had all of these things I wanted to do but ended up on the couch. Ben told me to rest because most other pregnant women take tons of naps and I don't. So, I decided that was my permission slip to start watching America's Next Top Model. I started crying over the models' relationship issues and blubbering when one of them got kicked off... finally, I just turned the TV off. Ben was installing blinds in our main room and he got frustrated so I started crying. Then I started crying because I was crying. Then I was crying because I thought I would have post partum depression... the list goes on. I did laugh while I was crying because I was enough of myself to understand that it was hormones.

Anyhoo, today marks the beginning of our 36 weeks. We had our birth plan visit today. Basically we want me and the baby to be healthy... prefer to give birth naturally at the birth center and, if I am in the tub when it is time to push, have a water birth. But, I have been told that birth plans change so the more flexible you are going into it the less you will beat yourself up afterwards. I hope I really am flexible when it comes down to it (in more ways than one!).

We interviewed our first Pediatrician. Ben and I assumed it would be a no-brainer and waited until last Thursday to do it because how hard can it be? You just pick someone and then the interview is a formality, right? Well, I had such a negative reaction to this person. I always thought pediatricians were just really friendly, kid-crazy folks. If we sent our kid to this person it would be like sending it to an assembly line for pediatric care where it just gets passed from person to person like a piece of machinery. Of course, we are now scrambling to find someone we like because we need a pediatrician to see the baby withn 24 hours of birth... I'll keep you posted on this debacle.

34.5 Weeks: Pregnant Together, At Last.

My sister, my nieces and brother in law came to Tucson to visit this past weekend. As you can see, Jeanne (my sister) is pregnant, too! She is due Oct 24 or 7 weeks after us.

My father bought a henna kit for us to decorate our bellies. Jeanne is protecting the henna with medical tape and mine is hanging out for all the world to see... Ben put a mathili snake on my belly.

We had a wonderful visit. My nieces are so much fun and it was great to see Jeanne and Adam. We enjoyed my parents' pool and I was able to pick my sister's brain since she is a labor and delivery nurse and lactation consultant. Bring on breastfeeding and labor now!

So, Ben and I have picked out the perfect boy name. We now have a name for a boy or a girl that we are both so happy about. It is weird because before we had a boy name that made us excited I was a little unsure as to whether I wanted a boy or not. But now that we have picked a name for a boy that we both are excited about I don't care if it is a boy or girl. I am glad to know that my uncertainty about having a boy was really about the names and not about actually the sex of the child. Phew!

In fact, our names are so cool that I think I will be bummed not use them both... maybe we should name it both of them. It won't care, right?